In the world of writing, the ability to convey the magnitude of a concept is like wielding a powerful pen. Take, for instance, the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. At that time, the moon remained an uncharted territory for humans. The crew of Apollo 8 orbited the moon ten times, a feat that was both daring and precise, all without setting foot on its surface before making their way back to Earth.
Imagine the feeling you get when you gaze up at a night sky filled with stars, a sense of wonder and insignificance washing over you as you contemplate the vastness of the universe. That’s precisely the emotion author Kurson aims to evoke in his readers. But here’s the catch – he’s not writing for a room full of scientists poring over data. His audience is the everyday person, the one who picks up a book to be transported and inspired.
Kurson’s secret weapon? An analogy as vivid as a splash of color on a blank canvas. He uses the image of someone throwing a dart to skim the fuzz off a peach from a distance of 28 feet. It’s an analogy so unique that it immediately grabs your attention. You’ve likely never thought of such a scenario before, but as soon as you picture it, you can understand the incredible level of difficulty the Apollo 8 astronauts faced. The simplicity of imagining that dart grazing only the peach fuzz makes the complexity of their space mission tangible.
This paragraph comes alive because Kurson steers clear of abstract numbers. Sure, numbers can be precise, but they often leave us scratching our heads when dealing with the vastness of space. Consider how different the impact would be if he had written, “The men were 240,000 miles away from earth, and they needed to fly within four miles of the moon’s surface.” Those numbers, while accurate, lack the power to truly make us feel the scale of the achievement.
So, if you want your writing to resonate with readers, to make them feel the grandeur or the intricacy of your subject, forget about relying solely on cold, hard numbers. Seek out those majestic analogies that can paint a picture in their minds. And if you do use a number, make sure it’s something the reader can easily visualize, like that relatable “28 feet.” In doing so, you’ll bring scale to life on the page, and your words will soar as high as those Apollo 8 astronauts did in 1968.
If you’d like me to expand on this topic, perhaps explore more examples of great analogies in writing or discuss how to come up with your own, feel free to let me know.
